Christmas and New Year's Eve bookings: deposits, pre-orders and no-shows

It is the Saturday before Christmas, every table is booked, and the party of ten at the window has not arrived. You turned away two other groups for that table last week.

To protect Christmas and New Year's Eve bookings in the UK, use four tools together: reminders for every booking, a deposit sized to your likely loss for larger parties and peak dates, set-menu pre-orders with a clear deadline, and full prepayment for New Year's Eve with a sliding refund scale. All four are lawful if the terms are shown before the guest books and the amounts are proportionate under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

This guide covers the law, the 2026 dates, a deposit calculator you can copy, pre-orders, wording to copy and what to do on the night.

Last checked: 4 November 2026.

Can I charge a deposit for Christmas bookings?

Yes. UK law does not ban deposits, prepayments or cancellation charges. It asks whether your terms are fair and clear.

The general rules are in our restaurant deposit policy guide: under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a charge for cancelling or not turning up must not be disproportionately high, the terms must be transparent and prominent, and you refund in full if you cancel. Three points matter most in December:

• What the CMA has said about event bookings. In advice to wedding and event venues, the closest published regulator view, the Competition and Markets Authority said a deposit should be "just to reserve the goods/services and is no more than a small percentage of the total price" (CMA, 2 March 2016). Advance payments should reflect the business's expenses, and cancellation charges should follow a sliding scale that covers the likely losses. Christmas parties are not weddings, but the reasoning carries across.
• No 14-day cooling-off. Regulation 28(1)(h) of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 excludes catering for a specific date from the 14-day right to cancel, so your own cancellation terms apply.
• Show the full price. A compulsory service charge on a party menu must be in the price shown up front, under section 230 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

Nobody has set a legal percentage for a deposit. Your defence is a number you can explain from your own costs, which is what the next section does. Check with a solicitor for your situation.

Which Christmas 2026 dates need a deposit?

Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday, so the Boxing Day bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December. Here is the season mapped to the policy in this guide, with bank holidays from gov.uk's official list:

On the New Year's Eve refund scale below, a guest gets a full refund up to Wednesday 9 December, 50% from 10 to 23 December, and nothing from Christmas Eve unless you resell the table. Put those dates in the booking confirmation, not a day count.

How much deposit should I take for a Christmas party?

Size it from what you lose if the table goes empty and you cannot resell it. Here is a worked example for a party of ten on a £55 Christmas set menu. The gross profit figure is an assumption, so use your own.

A £200 deposit is about a quarter of the expected £750 bill (£550 of food plus £200 of drinks) and well under half the likely loss. That is the kind of figure you can explain. Nobody has defined "small percentage", so if you want to sit further inside the CMA's wording, £10 a head works the same way. A non-refundable deposit of the full £550 for an ordinary December lunch would be much harder to defend.

A deposit calculator you can copy. Our rule of thumb, not a legal limit: take about a quarter of the expected spend per head, rounded to the nearest £5, and never more than half the gross profit you would lose per head. Paste this into a spreadsheet:

CHRISTMAS DEPOSIT CALCULATOR (per head)

B1  Set menu price, inc VAT       55
B2  Expected drinks, inc VAT      20
B3  Food gross profit             70%
B4  Drinks gross profit           75%

B6  Expected spend                =B1+B2
B7  Likely loss if not resold     =B1/1.2*B3+B2/1.2*B4
B8  Deposit per head              =MIN(MROUND(0.25*B6,5),FLOOR(0.5*B7,5))
B9  Deposit as share of spend     =B8/B6

Not VAT-registered? Remove the /1.2 in B7.

With £20 of drinks and the margins above:

A policy by booking type keeps it simple:

For deposits more generally, including saved cards and card holds, see our deposit policy guide.

Is it legal to ask for full payment upfront for New Year's Eve?

Yes, if the terms are clear and the refund rules are fair. Full prepayment makes sense when you are ordering special stock, running a single sitting and turning away people for every seat. What makes it fair is the refund scale. A sliding scale, as the CMA described, ties what you keep to what you lose as the date gets closer.

Example for a £95 a head New Year's Eve menu:

The phrase "unless we resell the table" matters. A business is expected to take reasonable steps to reduce its loss, and refunding when you fill the table is the clearest proof that you did.

VAT on kept money. If you are VAT-registered, a deposit or prepayment you keep is still taxable, because HMRC treats it as payment for the meal. Our restaurant VAT guide gives the paragraphs of VAT Notice 700. Refunded money comes back off your VAT return.

Offer a way out that keeps the money in the business. A guest who cannot come is often happy to move the date or take the value as a gift voucher. Our gift voucher guide covers the VAT and expiry rules.

How to run Christmas set-menu pre-orders

Pre-orders let the kitchen order and prep exactly, and they make large tables much faster to serve. They work when the process is tight.

1. Send the menu with the booking confirmation. Include the deadline and the deposit terms in the same message.
2. Set the deadline 7 days before the date. That gives the kitchen time to order.
3. Collect choices per named guest. "4 turkey, 3 salmon, 3 vegetarian" is not enough. Name cards need names.
4. Ask about allergies per guest, not per table. Record them against the person and the dish. Your allergen matrix tells staff which dishes are safe.
5. Chase once, then decide. If choices are not in 48 hours after the deadline, the organiser picks for missing guests, or you seat them on the day's menu.
6. Print a prep sheet with totals per dish per sitting, and a table plan with each guest's choice.

Reminders that cut Christmas no-shows

Reminders are cheap and work for every booking, including tables too small for a deposit. A December schedule:

Templates you can copy:

CONFIRMATION
Hi [Name], your table for [10] at [Restaurant] is booked for
[Sat 19 Dec, 7.30pm]. Deposit paid: [£200]. Free changes or
cancellation until [Thu 17 Dec, 7.30pm]: [link]. Pre-orders due
by [Sat 12 Dec]: [link].

48 HOURS BEFORE
Hi [Name], see you on [Sat 19 Dec at 7.30pm] for [10]. Numbers
changed? Tell us before [7.30pm tonight] and we'll adjust your
deposit: [link] or [phone].

MORNING OF
Morning [Name], your table is ready for [7.30pm]. Running late?
Call [phone] and we'll hold it for you.

Christmas deposit policy wording to copy

Replace the square brackets. Show it on the booking page before payment, in the confirmation and on your website's Christmas page.

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR BOOKINGS

Deposits. Bookings for [6 or more guests], and all bookings on
[Fridays and Saturdays from 27 November to 23 December], need a
deposit of [£20] per guest when you book. Your deposit comes off
your bill on the night.

Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. These menus are paid in full when
you book: [£X] per guest on Christmas Day, [£95] per guest on New
Year's Eve.

Changing or cancelling. Cancel or reduce numbers free of charge up
to [72 hours] before your booking (Christmas Day and New Year's Eve:
[21 days]) and we will refund in full within [5 working days].

Late changes. After that, we keep the deposit for any guest who
cancels or does not arrive, because we cannot usually resell the
seat. For Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, we refund [50%] between
[8 and 21] days before, and nothing within [7] days. If we resell
your table, we refund you in full.

Pre-orders. Please send each guest's choices and any allergies by
[7 days before]. Allergies: tell us when you book and again on
arrival.

If we cancel. If we have to cancel or change your booking, we
refund everything you have paid.

Questions or an emergency? Call [phone]. We will always try to help.

What to do on the night when a table does not show

1. Wait the time in your policy, for example 15 to 20 minutes for a large group.
2. Call the organiser once at the 10-minute mark. People do get stuck on trains in December.
3. Release the table at the time in your policy and offer it to walk-ins or the waiting list.
4. Apply the policy as written and email the organiser that day to say what was kept and why.
5. Record what happened on the booking: calls made, time released, whether the table was resold. If the guest disputes the charge with their bank, that record is your evidence.
6. Refund if you resold the table. It is fair, it is what your policy says, and it ends most disputes.

For year-round tactics, see how to reduce restaurant no-shows. The no-show cost calculator puts a number on your own December.

Can TablePort handle this for you?

TablePort Reservations covers most of this checklist:

1. Deposits per shift. Set deposits and cancellation terms per shift, so December evenings ask for a deposit while weekday lunches stay free. Diners read the terms before they confirm, and payments go through Stripe.
2. Deposit on the bill. When the party sits down, the deposit is credited to the bill as its own line.
3. Confirmations and reminders. Guests get a confirmation and a reminder before they arrive.
4. Close a shift. Block Christmas Day lunch or a whole day for a private party, with a reason guests can see.

The limit: TablePort applies the policy you write. It cannot tell you whether your amounts are fair under consumer law. See reservations.